the first month rent paid up front, with two months rent as deposit seems to be the norm here in town, but many frown upon the concept of deposits

There is no standard amount for the deposit. This has to be negotiated but should not be more than 2 months. I got back my 2 months' deposit, less 200 for some damages to the ceiling lamp. If you are renting from a regular guy then it's ok but if the landlord is out to scam you, he'll think of all things to retain your deposit. Just be careful who you deal with.

1 month deposit for every year of renting stated in the contract.

So far I never had problems in getting the deposit back, upon giving moving out notice 3 months in advance.

It's also true I always rented from very rich people living in the same community, so the odds they might risk to lose face for relatively small money plays in my favor.

Rent wise, I usually pay 6 month a time upfront, just to do not have to deal with (another) monthly payment.

I pay three months rent up front and an additional month deposit. I am in my 3rd home in 5 years. The first apartment was 3500 a month and he refused to return anything, but I expected as much so I did not pay the electric bill 1500, building management fee 1000, or the difference on the gas or water card 500. He was a real ass who would never repair any broken items such as the bedroom heat etc. He insisted I pay all these things and then we could negotiate what he would return. I told him I had a better idea, he could pay it out of the deposit as he had no intention of returning it.

My second apartment was 6000 RMB a month and the landlord was great. I lived there 3 years. Anytime anything was wrong he immediately had it fixed. We had dinner together several times over the years and when he bought a new SUV he called my gf and told her if I ever needed a bigger vehicle I could borrow his SUV. He returned my deposit in full.

here in Sichuan. rent is usually paid a year in full up front! last time, I could get a contract where I payed 6months up front, but the contract implied that I should stay a full year, so when I left after 6 months, I lost my deposit. Since the deposit was more than a month's rent, my wife told me to ignore their requests for repars, extra water and electric payments (she felt the deposit more than covered any expenses, and she was right).
Now, I live in an apartment owned by people from the same village as my wife is from, so they're fine with me just paying 3 months advance, and they'll wait until my payday, too. So officially, I'm a bit late with my 3-monthly payments. Chinese can be stingy, so I expect my wife will have some choice words if they decide to withhold my deposit without valid reason. If you want your deposit back, let your Chinese partner do the talking! If you have one that lives up to the stereotype about haggling, that is.

3 months is normal but I offered to pay 6 months in advance in exchange for a 15% discount.

We're moving in to a new place this week and we have to pay 12 mths rent in advance.  No deposit.

The place was an absolute pigsty so the owner had 3 cleaning ladies spend 6 hours cleaning it up.  (Chinese people, by and large, do tend to live like pigs.) 

After the cleaning ladies had spent all this time doing nothing that constituted real cleaning my wife gave them their marching orders and then spent another 6 hours cleaning it properly.

We've thrown out the dirty 1957 style furniture and now face some big bills getting a proper bed, lounge etc.

It's all adding up to a bloody lot of dough.

But at least we have an elevator.

Always they ask 2 months rent in advance.

we pay 3 month in advance for rent. deposit we paid only 1k